(no subject)
So yeah, I saw the Hawking lecture last night. After a long introduction where we acknowledged the new building at the pasadena convention center, Professor Hawking was finally wheeled on stage by someone i assume to be either a trusted student or perhaps his daughter. They played the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey as he came onstage, followed by Blue Danube. Then the music faded as Professor Hawking's assistant plugged in the microphone. For one dramatic instant, the audience could see the professor's face on the screen, as his baby blue eyes rolled up to meet those of his assistant.
His hands were in his lap. I had thought that he controlled his voice box with his fingers, but neither hand appeared to be touching anything but his lap. (It was later clarified that he actually activates his voice box by TWITCHING HIS CHEEK.) His assistant left the stage.
The whole room, which held about a thousand people, was silent. ... For a little too long.
After about 40 seconds of silence I began to get worried. Obviously, Professor Hawking wasn't going anywhere. He was just staring at his computer screen, occasionally twitching his bottom lip. What was wrong? Was it that the mic wasn't working, or was it something much more serious, like his health?
After about two minutes of silence - the audience holding its breath the whole time - his assistant came onstage. There was some rustling with the microphone, and the assistant spoke soft words to the professor. Then, at last, a robotic voice was heard echoing in the hall.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME."
Applause.
The lecture itself was about why we should go into space. It was maybe a late high school or early college level lecture. Professor Hawking argued that space exploration would determine whether the human race would have any future at all. He said that although today's technology didn't allow us to reap the full benefits of space travel, that two to four hundred years in the future it would could even possibly allow extrasolar travel (especially if we establish bases on the moon, Mars, or possibly one of Jupiter or Saturn's moons.) He also said that more space travel today would increase the public's interest in science, since so many people were inspired to become scientists when they saw the lunar landing.
There was a question and answer session at the end. Four students got to ask questions (which had been submitted to Prof. Hawking earlier so he could prepare his answers.) The first student, very nervously, asked him what it was like to be weightless (referring to that time he got to go in a zero-g machine.) That question wasn't so bad. The second student asked him when life will be like Star-Trek. I wanted to kill her for asking such a dumb freaking question. The third student (someone from Caltech) couldn't ask his question because Prof. Hawking accidentally triggered his voice box to answer before the guy could get beyond, "Hello Professor Hawking, my question is...".
The fourth student, a high school senior, asked what would happen if you strapped a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back, given that toast always lands butter side down and cats always land on their feet. Professor Hawking patiently explained that cats land on their feet because they use air resistance, but toast doesn't because of its shape. He then demonstrated this by having his assistant bring a toaster onstage, toast a piece of bread, butter it, and then drop it several times to show the 50/50 probability of the toast landing butter side down.
I came out of there feeling completely high and starstruck.